Love and Live
by Bob Regent
Summary: The Scooby gang in a Graveyard


The sky was grey and overcast, rain and wind howled around the graveyard. Arrayed around a single grave were the members of the world renowned Scooby Gang. One by one they filed to the graves.  
  
Willow Rosenberg: Original member and friend of the pair  
Tara Maclay: Newer member and friend to the pair.  
Rupert Giles: Mentor and friend. A Father to both  
Anya Emerson: On the arm of One Riley Finn, friends and lovers to the two.  
Daniel Osbourne and Faith Williams: Old friends and loved ones.  
Angel and Cordelia Chase: Old friends and loved ones.  
Amy Madison and Dawn Summers: Friend and Sister   
  
  
"A long time ago, I asked a man a man who later became a friend and ally- did he love a woman. His only answer was don't you? I could never really answer that question not then and not now. If I loved her why didn't I go after her."  
  
Angel looked up at them all.  
  
"The reason was, I was scared. I was scared to take a chance and to fight against an evil of incredible power; it took the bravery of a young man one I hated to get the woman we both loved away from the embrace of death. As Angelus, I once called him Buffy's White Knight, bravery and selflessness that are rarely seen these days. I'll miss them both they deserve their peace now."  
  
  
Willow stepped forward.  
  
"Xander Harris was my oldest and best friend, we did everything together. Spent all our time and effort on each other. He was the first man I ever loved and the first person that cared for me the way I am, we took me under his wing against the people that hurt me at school. Bullied and ridiculed me and never let them get away with it." Willow looked at Cordelia, who looked like she was going to cry at those words. She looked up and saw willow, seeing the forgiveness in her eyes.  
  
"Buffy Summers was the first person to really come up to me and choose me over anyone else, the two of them were but best and only friends for so long. I loved them both and I hope one day I'll see them again."  
  
  
Giles put his hands on Willow and Tara's shoulders, they both turned into his arms and hugged him. Every one of the ensemble hug another. Giles looks up and as they all take control of themselves he start's his turn.  
  
"I arrived in Sunnydale the Same time as Buffy, In fact it was more or less my fault that anyone else got involved. I took my job seriously; I wanted so much to have the greatest and most powerful slayer possible. I wanted to go down in history, but somewhere along the way I decided that wasn't what I wanted."  
  
He smiled at Willow  
  
"I wanted to have her survive, to have her live. I wanted a family. Buffy, Xander, Willow, then later Cordelia, Oz and everyone else all became my family. We all had each other, Angelus was right though, Buffy's White Knight is an Apt. term for him."  
  
He took off his glasses pinched his nose at the bridge and put them back on.  
  
"Alexander Harris was without doubt the most infuriating, annoying, irritating, obnoxious young man I've ever had the sincere good fortune to know."  
  
He looked around  
  
"He was brave, loyal to a fault, and honourable, it was without doubt an honour to know him. He would face adversity with no thought to his own safety and would charge in with no thought for himself, be it leading an army of students, facing down a master vampire or stopping a bomb from exploding he was always there for us. I have just realised how little we all thought of him."  
  
"I believe now I know why he did all he did, he loved us all in one way or another but in all he loved one woman the one he had almost given his life freely for several times."  
  
Angel nodded at that and replied  
  
"Every time she was in trouble he was there for her. I think on a level she always loved him, I think she believed she could never have him and I was the substitute maybe she made herself fall for me because she could never have him."  
  
Giles looked at Angel  
  
"Both their lives had been tinged with problems with bad lives but I think that they had found something in each other few others could see."  
  
Faith spoke up at this.  
  
"They both cared enough for me to try to get me to join you all. I never realised until it was too late that they were not trying to get me to help bolster their forces or just to use my abilities but as a friend as someone they could be friends with. I had never had that before, the closest had been my watcher and then the mayor but I never thought of Buffy as the slayer, or as Xander as anything else but a good-looking man but I know now that they both were trying to help me come out of my shell. I'll miss them both and I hope they find each other they both deserve happiness.  
  
  
  
Dawn was hugging onto Amy, the blonde held her too, Cordelia had come around the graves and attached herself to Willow, Oz held both of them.  
  
Anya stepped up to the top end of the Graves looking down at them, she looked up again and everyone turned to look at her.  
  
"I'll always love Xander, even when he wasn't here I always thought about him. When I lost my powers he looked after m, we didn't always agree but he always looked after me never let anything hurt me. When Olaf returned Xander refused to let anything happen to me or Willow, even though her was hurt." The last words we shrill as she tried to stop crying  
  
"He brought me closer to my humanity than I had ever been, I hope he knows how much I live him and how much I wish I could have been with him."  
  
She stopped as Riley enfolded his arms around her and held her close, he knew how she felt he had lost Buffy not once but twice, his heart had broken several times. He looked at her and she gradually got control of herself.  
  
Now Dawn stepped up and wanted to speak.  
  
"I've not know Xander that long, at least not anytime that isn't created. But over my life he always thought of me as a person. Even when he found out what I was he always looked after me kind of like a 'Human Security Blanket'" she giggled a little. "I told him that and for a week after he called me Linus."  
  
At that many of the group started laughing.  
  
"I never really got it until he showed me a Peanuts strip and now I wish I still had my security blanket. with my sister though it was all different, I love her very much I miss her more than anyone. Now I know how so many of you feel, I've lost both my sister and my best friend. Maybe I'll see them again I hope so."  
  
  
The rain had stopped  
  
  
For the next hour all assembled around started telling tales of their friends, over the years they had known them. Dawn told them of Buffy's adventures before she had moved to Sunnydale- the only person who knew them. Cordelia, Amy and Willow sat around laughing and crying at stories of Xander and his life that they remembered of him.  
  
"The speedos." Screamed Amy  
  
They all laughed like idiots over the speedos, the valentine's day incident, halloween. They cried over the deaths of Jesse, Jenny and Doyle. They knew that this would be the one time they could all dot his for a very long time.  
  
Giles, Angel and Anya all spoke of their friendship with the young man and their love for their lost companions, Jokes and sad stories. Lovers tiffs and pure love from their hearts all came out, Angel for his lost love and the one man he knew had the heart and soul of a hero, Anya for her first real love and the man who had made her human again, the one person who allowed her to grow.  
Giles a man who had lost a son and a daughter, two people who had given his life meaning and had brought him out of his shell of books and tweed. His family... His friends...  
  
  
"It's time" He said to the gathering, one by one they stood up and moved towards the edge of the Graveyard.  
  
"It's funny, I will really miss them both but I don't feel pain at my loss." Said Willow.  
  
"I don't think any of us to Willow, it's part of who we are and what we've all been through. Maybe one day we'll see them again."  
  
The whole group one by one walked away, the clouds started to dissipate as the winds died down the darkness was leaving. It was almost as if the clouding of all their souls were being pulled away with the wind. As they watched two figures walked up the hill towards the graves light streamed from the clouds onto the whole of the Scooby gang  
  
The figures laid a rose one white one read on them all, the taller one wrapped his arms around the smaller covering her shoulders and upper body with his own. She looked into his eyes and then back down to the graves.  
  
"Xander what are we going to do. I miss them all."  
  
"Fight Buff that's all we can do, fight Angelus and Spike and the forces we have to. I miss them too you know, but once Angelus had turned Corrode and they had killed Giles we had little chance of realising what was going on."  
  
"Do you think they're all together Xander. All of them."  
  
They looked at the graves in the middle was a single plaque  
  
  
The Sunnydale Scooby Gang  
  
"This is not goodbye but merely Au Revoir"  
From  
Buffy Summers, Alexander Harris  
Charles Gunn and Wesley Wyndham-Price  
  
  
He turned her around and looked into her eyes, she lowered her face not being able to lock her eyes with his. He lifted her face with his finger, she was trying not to cry again. She had lost so much this last year- the only one she hadn't was the young man in front of her.  
  
"Buffy... Cordelia, Oz and Tara are no longer in those bodies, they are demons. We have to free them Buffy even if it takes a lifetime."  
  
They hugged and into her ear he continued speaking.  
  
"I'm sure they are all together Buffy all of them, their souls are intertwined we'll see them again and maybe one day we'll all be looking out for each other in whatever afterlife we end up in. We better go Wesley and Gunn'll be waiting for us"  
  
Buffy sniffed and nodded. Xander kissed her on the forehead. She sank into his embrace and they stood there in the sunlight waiting for the darkness to come. They knew that neither would ever leave each other, they loved and cared about each other and maybe one day they would be together but for now that is in the future. The souls of the Scooby Gang watched with emotion and happiness that before they went that they all had the chance to see their friends again slowly one by one their shapes became balls of light and slowly wafted into the heavens. The last to leave was Angel.  
  
"Look after her White Knight. Good luck to you both."  
  
  
And with that the final member of the Scooby gang left this plain of existence, as he did the two young adults slowly left the graveyard- Hand in hand.  
  
  
The End- No Sequels  



End file.
